Following Schumer and Biden comments on Jewish state, locals have a message: ‘Stay out of Israeli politics’

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Watch as Israelis react to Schumer, Biden criticisms

Israelis in Jerusalem give their views on Senator Schumer’s recent comments, on whether President Biden has turned on Israel and who they would vote for if a new election was held in Israel. (Kobi Natan/TPS for Fox News Digital)

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JERUSALEM – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., should not interfere with Israel’s internal politics and President Biden is turning on the Jewish state out of his own political interests ahead of the U.S. national elections in November. These are just some of the views Israelis in Jerusalem’s bustling Machane Yehuda food market expressed to Fox News Digital earlier this week. 

Shoppers expressed disappointment with recent comments made by Schumer criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza and suggesting it was time for Israelis to hold new elections. Speaking at a virtual gathering of Republican senators on Wednesday, Netanyahu hit back at Schumer, a lifetime supporter of Israel and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official, calling his comments “wholly inappropriate and outrageous,” according to reports.

Israelis interviewed by Fox News Digital shared a similar sentiment when asked what they thought about Schumer’s call for a new election.

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President Biden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. (Getty Images)

“I don’t think it’s Schumer’s place to comment on the politics in Israel or tell us we need to do a re-election,” one shopper told Fox News Digital. 

Another said Schumer “should worry about his own re-election and try to stay out of Israeli politics.” 

“We know how to handle ourselves,” he said. 

“We had elections,” another of those interviewed stated. “We have a government that was elected. He understands democracy. He knows Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Shoppers at the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, Israel, on Jan. 3, 2024. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Shoppers were also asked if they felt that the president, who spoke to Netanyahu by phone earlier in the week and demanded he send a delegation to Washington to discuss Israel’s strategy in its five-month-old war in Gaza, had turned on Israel.  

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Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu cast their votes in the Israeli general election on Nov. 1, 2022. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)

“He is turning a little bit on Israel as a strategy because he, Biden, wants to win the next U.S. election,” one Israeli interviewed told Fox News Digital. 

“Unfortunately, that’s the main issue with politicians,” another person interviewed said. “They have their own concerns and not for the well-being of all the people.”

Others said they did not trust Biden, called him a liar and noted that the U.S. leader “is not in the soundest of minds, so whatever he says it’s here today it could be gone tomorrow.”

“President Trump was the only president who really understood the true alliance with Israel and bucked the anti-Israel foreign policy of the foreign policy of America,” said another shopper. 

WHY MIDEAST NEIGHBORS WON’T OFFER REFUGE TO PALESTINIANS STUCK IN GAZA WAR ZONE

An IDF tank in between photos of President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu. (AP, Getty Images)

Fox News Digital also asked those in Jerusalem, a city known for its more conservative views as compared to Israel’s second-largest city of Tel Aviv, if elections were held in Israel today who they might vote for.

One man said he would vote for Netanyahu, while others hesitated, noting that while it would be difficult to cast a vote for Netanyahu after the horrific terror attack carried out by Hamas terrorists on southern Israel on Oct. 7, they also felt that there were no viable alternative options.

“It would be very difficult for me to vote for Bibi Netanyahu again… after what has happened,” one man said, referring to the Israeli leader by his nickname. “I would have to look into alternative but similar options.” 

Another person responded that she wouldn’t vote for Netanyahu “because I just think he was too long as prime minister in Israel, it’s time for a change.”

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The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) tent camp in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Nov. 27, 2023. (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Netanyahu is the longest-serving leader in Israel’s history. First elected prime minister in 1996, Netanyahu took the country through five rounds of snap elections after failing to secure a clear majority of votes needed in order to establish a government. In 2022, following the fifth election, Netanyahu, 74, joined forces with far-right and ultra-religious parties to finally form a government. In the months leading up to the Oct. 7 terror attack, Israelis had been holding mass weekly demonstrations against his government’s plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary. 

Ruth Marks Eglash is a veteran journalist based in Jerusalem, Israel. She reports and covers the Middle East and Europe. Originally from the U.K, she has also freelanced for numerous news outlets. Ruth can be followed on Twitter @reglash